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July 6, 2018 by Guest Post 25 Comments

Odor Free RV Black Tank Tips

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Banish black tank smells forever with these simple steps! Don’t be afraid to use your RV bathroom. Not having to use public restrooms or bathhouses when we travel is one of the reasons we love RV travel.

We’ve been living and traveling full-time in our RV for four years, using our bathroom just as we did in our sticks & bricks home. Even in the sweltering summer heat (we spent a couple in Florida), we were able to keep our bathroom and RV odor free by using the method we’ll outline in this post.

Continue on to read our step by step process or watch the video below.

  • Step 1. Keep the tanks closed until ready to flush.
  • Step 2. Flush the tank regularly.
  • Step 3. Remember, Water is Your Friend
  • Learn More About Your RV Water Systems
  • Related posts:

Step 1. Keep the tanks closed until ready to flush.

If you are at a location with a sewer connection, you may be tempted to keep your camper’s black tank valve open and let the sewage flow freely. Don’t. This will result in the dreaded poop pyramid. Ever use a open pit toilet? You know the ones with no water at the bottom. Everything just starts building up. You need a lot of water to keep things flowing smoothly. In fact, I usually refill the toilet and give it an extra flush after most uses just to keep plenty of water in the tank. This will also help dissolve the toilet paper fully. Bottomline: Water is your friend and keep the tank valve closed until you are ready to dump.

Learn how to pay off debt, earn an income, and save money all while traveling full-time.

Step 2. Flush the tank regularly.

It is important to flush your RV black tank regularly. This is easiest when you are at a campground with sewer hook ups. We empty our black tank about every 5 – 7 days. If it is not 3/4 full, we add water to assist in completely draining the tank. We also recommend emptying it before travel to reduce the extra weight (water weighs ~8 lbs per gallon).

  • Open the valve and the drain the black tank completely.
  • Back flush the camper black tank. Our main black tank has the built in backflush inlet that most newer RVs come with. The black tank for the 2nd bathroom does not, so we purchased a Camco Dual Flush Pro Holding Tank Rinser (click image below for more detail). We back fill our tank for 4 minutes. Drain and repeat 1-2 times until the water is clear. I used to run inside and watch the tank monitor, but that got old so now I stay outside and time it.
  • Once the water is running clear, close the black tank valve, and backfill the black tank with about 2 gallons of water. Since we have the built in system, we just time it for 90 seconds. If you don’t have that, you can do it from inside by flushing the toilet and letting the water flow down into the holding tank for that long.
  • We follow a black tank drain and flush cycle with a gray tank flush. We also have two gray tanks — one for the main bathroom (sink/shower) and one for the kitchen and second shower. If are at a site with sewer hook ups, we leave the main one closed until we’re ready to dump the black. We leave the 2nd gray tank open to drain as water is used. If you only have one gray tank and want to leave it open most of the time, we recommend closing it a day or two prior to your black tank flush so you can essentially wash out the sewer hose with the soapy gray water.
  • Finally, when we get back inside the RV, we add two capfuls of Calgon water softener and about 1/2 cup to 1 cup of of liquid dish detergent (some people say Dawn, but we use a generic).

Step 3. Remember, Water is Your Friend

As previously mentioned, using plenty of water is the best thing to keep the RV black tanks flowing smoothly. Don’t be afraid to use it. We both often flush an extra time or two just to add water to the holding tank.

Water availability was a problem we encountered with our first boondocking experience. Also, although we were able to use the portable sewage system, we didn’t have enough water available to back flush the tank as we described above. Our solution was to drive to a dump station every other week. In the future we will bookend boondocking or partial hook up stays with full hook up campground stays.

Learn our 3 step process for finding the best campgrounds. Whether you are traveling by motorhome, fifth wheel, travel trailer, or campground this process can work for you.

Learn More About Your RV Water Systems

Check out our book, A Complete Novice’s Guide to RV Water System’s Maintenance you want to learn more about your RV water systems, from preventive maintenance like flushing the water heater to sanitizing the fresh water tanks. It’s short, full of photos, and written in laymen’s terms. Even better, its free on Amazon Kindle Unlimited!

Sharing is caring! Feel free to share the image below on Pinterest! 

Want an odor free RV? Follow these tips to keeping your camper bathroom smelling fresh! We cover the basics of RV and camper holding tank maintenance. Simple steps, no purchase of deodorizing packets required.

No matter what type of RV you own, you'll need to flush and clean your black tank! Follow our simple GEO method for maintaining odor free holding tanks in your camper. #motorhome #fifthwheel #traveltrailer #camper #sewagetanks #5thwheel #rvtank

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Related posts:

Easy DIY RV Care and Maintenance
What Full-Time RVers Do When Their Home Is In The Shop

Filed Under: Maintenance Tips Tagged With: black tank, black tank cleaning, black tank flush, black tank flush system, black water, geo method, geo method black tank, geo method black water tank, geo method for holding tanks, geo method for rv, geo method of cleaning black tank, geo method tank cleaning, grey water system, Odor Free RV Black Tank Tips, rv black tank, rv black tank cleaning, rv black tank flush, rv black tank flush system, rv black tank tips, rv holding tank, rv holding tank cleaning, rv holding tank treatment, the geo method

Comments

  1. Bob Bonenfant says

    July 27, 2018 at 12:30 pm

    Very informative and interesting. Thanks!

    Reply
    • Julie Chickery says

      July 27, 2018 at 10:02 pm

      You’re welcome! We’re glad you found it helpful and are especially glad you stopped by our site.

      Reply
      • Gene says

        August 21, 2018 at 9:47 pm

        I wonder how long opening and closing opening and closing the black water tank valve will last?

        Reply
        • Julie Chickery says

          August 21, 2018 at 10:43 pm

          4 years so far, but we’ll post an update when it gives out.

          Reply
  2. Darlene Kinnear says

    August 1, 2018 at 3:01 pm

    Thank you so much I am trying to prove that I know what I know is right to a couple who thinks they know but seems I knew better than them who always leave their valves open the whole time

    Thanks again

    Reply
    • Julie says

      August 1, 2018 at 10:21 pm

      Glad you agree with us! 🙂 This is just what we have found works best for us.

      Reply
      • Gaetane Tetreault says

        August 21, 2019 at 8:42 am

        We are very new to camping and was told to never leave the valves open, not just for smell, but god knows what could crawl up the piping…no Thanks!!!

        Reply
        • Julie Chickery says

          August 21, 2019 at 10:10 am

          The main reason you don’t want to leave your black tank valve open is because you need a lot of water so things will flow out when you want them too (not pile up). 🙂

          Reply
  3. Pedro says

    September 2, 2018 at 10:11 pm

    Thanks for the tips. But any feedback on storing the camper for a couple very hot months. It smells bery bad i assume any water left just dries up. I usually backflush a few times. But my issuse is when i return .

    Reply
    • Julie Chickery says

      September 2, 2018 at 10:17 pm

      Hmm, that’s a good question. Since we are full-time travelers we really don’t ever leave the RV for that long. I would recommend going on a FB Group called RV Family Travel Atlas. It is geared more towards part-time RVers so they would understand the concerns of storage. Everyone in that group is always super helpful too. Sorry I couldn’t be more help on that one!

      Reply
    • GrammyDane says

      February 26, 2020 at 10:37 am

      I use pine sol in our black tank when I store ours!

      Reply
  4. Mike Rado says

    September 19, 2018 at 8:09 pm

    I’ve read these types of comments many times. My “solution” is to camp for several days before I even connect the sewer line. I usually don’t for an overnight in a pull through site. And I never leave the tanks open, except when emptying them. The value is that we get set up in our campsite faster.

    Reply
    • Julie Chickery says

      September 19, 2018 at 10:42 pm

      Our sewer connection from the RV is under the slide so it is simpler to go ahead and connect that first thing. However, we don’t leave the black tank open either.

      Reply
  5. Larry Black says

    March 28, 2019 at 11:21 am

    “Finally, when we get back inside the RV, we add two capfuls of Calgon water softener and about 1/2 cup to 1 cup of of liquid dish detergent (some people say Dawn, but we use a generic)“

    Is this added to the gray tank or black tank or both”

    Reply
    • Julie Chickery says

      March 29, 2019 at 2:15 pm

      Just the black. The soap will get in the gray from showering and dish washing.

      Reply
      • Christy says

        March 21, 2020 at 12:54 pm

        Do you use this combination instead of the solutions sold for black tanks? None of those have been very effective for us.

        Reply
        • Julie says

          March 21, 2020 at 9:44 pm

          Yes, we use this instead of any chemicals or deodorant packs in the black tank.

          Reply
  6. Sheila True says

    June 16, 2019 at 6:46 am

    Do you still add black tank chemicals to your tank or just use Calgon?

    Reply
    • Julie says

      June 16, 2019 at 1:24 pm

      No chemicals, just the Calgon & dish soap.

      Reply
      • Ashley says

        June 25, 2019 at 12:16 am

        I’m sorry I’m so confused lol. So once you add the 2 gallons of water, you leave that in the tank correct? You don’t empty that out right? We are very new to this and neither myself nor husband has a clue, so thank you so much for the post. We would be lost without information like this lol.

        Reply
        • Julie says

          June 26, 2019 at 12:33 pm

          No problem. I emailed you a more in depth answer, but yes, you are right. At the end of the process, you add back in a gallon or two of water and leave it there with the Calgon and dish soap. You always want to have water in your black tank before you use it.

          Reply
  7. Gaetane Tetreault says

    August 9, 2019 at 9:06 am

    these are great tips, we are very new, first summer as a matter of fact. We have been told to add an enzyme product to break down everything in black tank, but you don’t mention it. just wanting to know. Thank you!

    Reply
    • Julie Chickery says

      August 9, 2019 at 9:49 am

      We used an enzyme product our first year on the road. It didn’t seem to work any better than the other additives. I think that is because you don’t keep things in your black tank long enough for them to break down really. For the last 4 years we’ve only used the Calgon & dish soap.

      Reply
      • Christy says

        March 21, 2020 at 12:58 pm

        We got samples of an excellent natural enzyme product when we bought our first camper. The company has since gone out of business and we haven’t found anything comparable. Looking forward to trying your tip this summer.

        Reply
        • Julie says

          March 21, 2020 at 9:42 pm

          We used some kind of enzyme early on too. When I couldn’t find it again, I started using this method.

          Reply

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